On the anniversary of America’s independence, the abolitionist leader Frederick Douglass made a biblical Psalm – Psalm 137 – best known for its opening line, “By the Rivers of Babylon,” a centerpiece ...

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Seventy years later, the Persian King Cyrus conquered Babylonia. He invited a group of Judeans to return to the land of Israel under the leadership of Ezra and Nehemiah. With that act, he helped ...

Clay bricks from the building projects of ancient kings recorded a historical “map” of changes in the Earth’s magnetic field, a new study has found. About 3,000 years ago, for rea… ...

Peter John Beyfus is an historian, published author, poet, and a person who prides himself on “thinking outside the box”. I have written many essays on Jewish themes, published in various ...

And then, after nine years of autonomy in the Babylonian Empire, the Babylonian army began its siege on Jerusalem on the 10th of Tevet.

The Babylonian exile served as a crucible, forcing the Israelites to rethink their relationship to Yahweh, reassess their standing as a chosen people, and rewrite their history.